Every breakup is followed by a transitionary period. It’s the bridge between the crushing moment a relationship ends and settling into a new normal. For Lyrica Anderson, her adjustment period after splitting from record producer A1 Bentley took on the form of a literal place: the Marriott hotel. Hence, she went on to release her new single “Marriott” on April 16, which reveals the true emotions and day-to-day struggles that the 32-year-old singer-songwriter faced as a newly single mother who recovered from her breakup in a hotel suite.
“‘Marriott’ was my release, my diary when I wrote that song,” Lyrica EXCLUSIVELY told HollywoodLife on May 6. “It’s me just letting it out. Like you know what, ‘We went through this. I’m tired of this s–t, I’m tired of going through this stuff with you and I’m about to dip. This is the hotel I’m going to stay at and as a matter of fact, I’m going to write about it.’”
Before releasing the song into the world, Lyrica revealed that she actually played it for A1! The lyrics certainly don’t spare him, with lines like “Now you all on The Shade Room / I don’t gotta sit and take it,” “All your talk is cheap,” and so on. “He was kind of like, ‘Wow…Oh you wrote this, you’re bragging about being at the Marriott? Like okay.’ So he felt kind of a way, especially the second verse…But you know, there’s nothing he can really do.” This is because when it came to writing, Lyrica allowed herself to be “very selfish” on this song (and in her upcoming album in general), she admitted.
“I want to tell my story and not anyone else’s. Not something just [that] everybody can twerk to or dance to,” Lyrica explained. To tell this story of her hotel stay fully — which she called a “dope” yet “sad” experience — Lyrica headed back to the very place that served as the inspiration for her breakup ballad: the Marriott hotel, of course. This is where Lyrica shot her music video that dropped on April 21, which has an emotional backstory behind the montage of glamorous solo shots. Her one-year-old son Ocean, whom Lyrica shares with A1 and took with her to the hotel, even makes a cameo in the music video!
“It’s not easy to be at the hotel with your baby…Changing him through the night [and] morning and feeding him…Taking care of him. It’s crazy,” Lyrica recalled. Even though A1 still shared co-parenting duties with Lyrica, this lifestyle change was a 180 from her past routine as she stayed at the Marriott for about a month and a half. Unfortunately, Lyrica didn’t get to “dive deep” into showing “how hard it was to be at a hotel” by herself, she confessed.
From bringing her baby’s portable crib to “waking up in the middle of the night and morning,” changing diapers and feeding Ocean, Lyrica originally planned to convey this post-breakup grind by shooting a music video “beat, beat, beat, like a movie.” The coronavirus pandemic got in the way, and Lyrica couldn’t fulfill her vision as quarantine orders in Los Angeles became stricter. Regardless, Lyrica assured us that she was still “satisfied” and “happy” with the video and gave a special shout-out to her director, Damien Sandoval.
Not everything can be planned — just like the song’s explosion on TikTok. Lyrica revealed that the “Marriott” dance trend happened completely “organically” after Harlem Globetrotters player Crissa “Ace” Jackson posted choreography to the song on TikTok, inspiring others to try out the moves as well. This led to a combined total of 1.6 million views from videos using the “Marriott” audio, Lyrica happily reported.
While Lyrica has shifted her focus on this new chapter in her life — new single, new album and new social media trends — she still had to juggle the usual doubts that come with leaving someone whom you share a child with. “It’s a weird situation because we have a kid so it’s always like, you know, ‘Should you figure things out for the baby? Should you not? Should you work it out? Should you stick it through so that the baby can have both parents in the house?,” Lyrica told us, listing the same questions she had asked herself while dealing with her relationship issues with A1.
After tying the knot in 2016, fans saw the couple’s marriage end when Lyrica announced to A1 that she wanted a “divorce” in the Season 6 finale of Love & Hip Hop: Hollywood that aired in Dec. 2019. With such a cliffhanger, Lyrica couldn’t say for sure whether or not she’ll be returning to the VH1 reality television show this upcoming season.
“I don’t know if I’m doing the show or not, because I’m really just focusing on the music,” Lyrica revealed. Well, you won’t need reality TV to hear Lyrica’s perspective on her relationship drama with A1, which you can listen to above!